Slide layers or structural elements having slide layers (slide surfaces) are utilized in a wide variety of applications, such as slide bearings, linear systems, linear guides, linear slide guides, etc., and they may be designed, e.g., as plate-shaped (flat surfaces), as bushings (sleeves) or as spherical plain bearings (e.g., as curved surfaces). In addition to other materials, fiber-reinforced synthetic materials (plastics), e.g., fiber-reinforced composite slide materials or wound bushings, are used as materials for conventional glide surfaces. These can be dry-lubricated, as well as wet-lubricated, slide materials, which can be utilized in many variations.
For the manufacture of conventional slide bearings or slide layers, often pure PTFE-yarns containing reinforcement fibers of various origins, for example glass or aramid, are interwoven or wound. They can then be impregnated with a matrix made of a matrix material (e.g., an adhering polymer, such as an epoxy resin matrix). In some slide layers, friction-reducing or wear-reducing additives are also introduced into the matrix. In certain embodiments, PTFE-heteroyarns, e.g., made of mixed filament yarns, are utilized. This approach leads in many cases to a gradual build-up, i.e. to a differing distribution of the friction-reducing and/or reinforcing structural elements in the slide material, e.g., in the thickness direction.
Moreover, fiber-reinforced materials, which comprise only PTFE as fibers, can exhibit, in some cases, insufficient mechanical stability for use as a slide layer. PTFE can possibly have the strongest anti-adhesive properties among all polymers. In certain embodiments, good friction-reducing, self-lubricating properties can thus be derived from PTFE. Nevertheless, it can also possibly happen that PTFE, independent of whether it is in particle- or fiber-form, can bind to or in a matrix or a matrix material only to a limited extent. In unfavorable conditions, a sufficient fiber-matrix adhesion can not be achieved. However, it is possible that the fiber-matrix adhesion is essential to ensuring a satisfactory mechanical stability of the fiber-reinforced material or the slide layer.